Russian band stole music from Quake II

[Rubilacxe]

ID Software hired Sonic Mayhem to compose and perform the majority of the soundtrack to their 1997 video game Quake II. The following is one of the songs from the Quake II soundtrack by Sonic Mayhem, called "Quad Machine":

A Russian band, D.I.V., released the following track on March 4, 2015, titled "You Chose Death":

Notice anything in particular? It's the same song! Albeit with new Russian lyrics, but still! That doesn't seem legal...

So why did I bring this up (aside from the absurdity of it)? I run a YouTube channel and I did a Let's Play of Quake II a while back. However, this morning, D.I.V. decided to Content ID Claim one of my videos from the Let's Play, claiming that I was using their music in the video. Y'know, the music that they stole from Quake II...which is the game I was playing in the video...

[Varis Alpha]

different link please? the video is not available to view over here for me.

[snapshot]

Link is not working :/

[Rubilacxe]

Hmm, well you can listen to a sample of the song on Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UIKXTZK/

Or you could run a Google search for "Ты выбрал смерть" by Д.И.В (the name of the track/band in Russian).

[Quast]

Yeah that's pretty fucking blatant. But that's russians for ya.

[Rubilacxe]

There's also a Google Play link here:

https://play.google.com/music/preview/Tnph6qlxvdrkjsohhr73kvwh7kq

It's track 7

[General Rainbow Bacon]

Yeah, that's pretty bad.

Did you tell ID about it?

Maybe ID will be able to sue the crap out of them.

[snapshot]

Someone has to write a review for him to warn the others, Or maybe to report it .

[Rubilacxe]

General Rainbow Bacon said:

Did you tell ID about it?

Maybe ID will be able to sue the crap out of them.

I haven't contacted ID Software, but I did send out an email to Sonic Mayhem, or at least their representative, with the Amazon.com and Google Play links.

I suppose ID Software ultimately holds the copyright for the music, right? Perhaps I should get in touch with them instead...

[Bucket]

Ha, listen to the rest of their "album". It ranges from blatant MIDI recordings to a host of well-worn drum and guitar samples. It wouldn't surprise me if absolutely nothing besides the lyrics is original work.

[Maes]

So, where does one put the line between "tribute", "sampling" and "ripoff"?

[NiGHTMARE]

Rubilacxe said:

Notice anything in particular? It's the same song! Albeit with new Russian lyrics, but still! That doesn't seem legal...

It's probably perfectly legal in Russia, since they have only the most basic of intellectual property laws.

[Da Werecat]

Dem pesky Ivans.

[Uncle 80]

wow, that's a new low. Sounds like this "band" didn't even bother re-recording the track themselves, but just pasted their boring and clueless vocal line on top of it and then splashed some synths across.

[Rubilacxe]

Maes said:

So, where does one put the line between "tribute", "sampling" and "ripoff"?

There is a possibility that the band has permission from Sonic Mayhem to use the track. I can't seem to find any website for the band and I don't have their album in my hands, so I'm not sure if Sonic Mayhem or ID Software is credited anywhere.

Regardless, it's kinda ridiculous that they are claiming my video - I'm not using their version of the song. The song in my video is directly from the game, which was published in 1997. Hell, the video in question was published in February 2014, a full year before they published their song.

[BaronOfStuff]

You get used to this sort of shit, but that makes the whole thing no less ridiculous. One of my C&C: Red Alert videos got a Content ID match from some ghetto shithead hip-hop fuckwit, because his shitty song example of talking over someone else's music used a sample of Hell March.

And then I also got Content ID'd because of a MIDI in a Doom vid.

[Shaviro]

On a related note: Not that it's as blatant, but Quake2's Big Gun borrows pretty heavily from Alice In Chain's Junkhead.

[Rubilacxe]

BaronOfStuff said:

You get used to this sort of shit, but that makes the whole thing no less ridiculous. One of my C&C: Red Alert videos got a Content ID match from some ghetto shithead hip-hop fuckwit, because his shitty song example of talking over someone else's music used a sample of Hell March.

And then I also got Content ID'd because of a MIDI in a Doom vid.

That's crazy. Just goes to show that this automated Content ID thing isn't perfect...

[Never_Again]

I had a copyright notice on the Sky May Be video that uses a Bach MIDI, claiming a match for some Brandenburg Bounce shit. To YT's credit, the claim was removed within an hour of filing a claim dispute.

[DooM_RO]

Karma is a bitch right?

[AkiraZXE]

Don't people do shitty, unlicensed covers of video game music all the time? Now, ContentID, that goes beyond the realm of avoidable garbage. A friend of mine got a ContentID claim for a younger family member playing the piano in the house somewhere for about ten seconds. The system is utterly broken with no oversight whatsoever, and that's really going to remain the way it is until Youtube is forced to actually compete for traffic (so, probably never) and the music and movie industries finally get rid of their rabid guard dog lawyers (again, probably never).

[Remilia Scarlet]

That's like, the exact same track, ripped from the CD.

[Maes]

Akira_98 said:

Don't people do shitty, unlicensed covers of video game music all the time?

^ That. In addition, variations and reinterpretations of musical bases are a basic skill required by a musician, and in certain types of music, it's nearly impossible to escape them.

You will be surprised e.g. that how many different songs and kinds of music are basically re-arrangements of Pachelbel's Canon in D Minor

Obviously, "Canon Rock" doesn't hide it ;-)

[snapshot]

Funniest part is that he wants to make money of it :P .

[Maes]

DMGUYDZ64 said:

Funniest part is that he wants to make money of it :P .

Even funnier is that he will make at least some rubles.

After all, there's a market even for this:

[Kontra Kommando]

Yep, sounds totally ripped off.

[Doomkid]

Everything is bootleg in Russia, man.

Youtube's copyright system is fucking retarded beyond belief, as others have said.

Akira_98 said:

[...]going to remain the way it is until Youtube is forced to actually compete for traffic (so, probably never) and the music and movie industries finally get rid of their rabid guard dog lawyers (again, probably never).

This. GoogleTube+ has way too much money and basically zero competition..

[Quasar]

America embargoes Russia, Russia steals America's game sound tracks. Maybe we can call it even now and avert WW3 early :V

[Gez]

Here's another example:

If you go on that page, Youtube tells that the soundtrack is '"House of Chthon" by Mental Demise'. Which is:

Conclusion: Youtube sucks.